Althea Technologies Chosen by Quintessence Biosciences to Produce Lead Protein Oncology Drug

Althea Technologies, Inc., a leading provider of innovative technologies and services for pharmaceutical development and manufacturing, announced today that it has been awarded a contract from Quintessence Biosciences under a manufacturing supply agreement to produce the firm's first drug candidate. The drug candidate QBI-139 is effective in cancer models against a broad range of solid tumors. Quintessence plans to file an investigational new drug application (IND) for QBI-139 with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the first quarter of 2008. Althea will provide protein production, purification, and aseptic filling services to produce the clinical trial materials.

"Althea is an outstanding company with significant experience in the contract manufacture of protein therapeutics," said Ralph Kauten, Quintessence Biosciences CEO. "We are confident in their ability to produce the quality of drug we need for our upcoming clinical trials."

"We are very pleased to begin work on Quintessence's leading drug candidate," stated President and Co-CEO of Althea, Dr. Magda Marquet. "The Quintessence QBI-139 therapeutic program is exciting as it represents a new and potentially safer approach to combat a broad array of devastating cancer types."

About Althea Technologies, Inc.

Althea Technologies, a leading San Diego-based pharmaceutical services firm, provides critical manufacturing and development services that support researchers worldwide in their advancement of novel therapies and efforts to apply new genomic information. Althea's services include cGMP contract manufacturing of recombinant proteins, DNA-based therapeutics and vaccines, aseptic filling, and gene quantification using real-time PCR and gene expression analysis under GLP conditions. Additionally, Althea has introduced new services and technologies for the identification and development of genetic biomarkers with innovative programs such as the company's proprietary Express Pathway(SM). For more information, visit www.altheatech.com.

About the Evade™ Ribonucleases

The Evade™ Ribonuclease technology provides an opportunity to attack the RNA in cancer cells, an exciting new cancer drug target, with analogs of the human pancreatic ribonuclease 1. In preclinical disease models, the most advanced lead candidate QBI-139 has shown an exceptional safety profile and outstanding tumor growth inhibition in vivo against human pancreatic, non-small cell lung, prostate, and ovarian solid tumors.

About Quintessence Biosciences, Inc.

Quintessence Biosciences, Inc. is a private biopharmaceutical company focused on development of proprietary cancer therapies based on the Evade™ Ribonuclease technology. Quintessence's first product candidate, QBI-139, is anticipated to enter a Phase 1 clinical trial in the first half of 2008. The company also has a pipeline of other Evade™ Ribonuclease products in preclinical research. For more information, visit www.quintbio.com.